The Highlandmen are pretty men
     For handling sword and shield,
     But yet they are but simple men
     To stand a stricken field.

     The Highlandmen are pretty men
     For target and claymore,
     But yet they are but naked men
     To face the cannon’s roar.

     For the cannons roar on a summer night
     Like thunder in the air;
     Was never man in Highland garb
     Would face the cannon fair.

But the Highlanders of 1745 had got far beyond the simplicity of their forefathers, and showed throughout the whole war how little they dreaded artillery, although the common people still attached some consequence to the possession of the field-piece which led to this disquisition.

NOTE 26.—­ANDERSON OF WHITBURGH

The faithful friend who pointed out the pass by which the Highlanders moved from Tranent to Seaton, was Robert Anderson, Junior, of Whitburgh, a gentleman of property in East Lothian.  He had been interrogated by the Lord George Murray concerning the possibility of crossing the uncouth and marshy piece of ground which divided the armies, and which he described as impracticable.  When dismissed, he recollected that there was a circuitous path leading eastward through the marsh into the plain, by which the Highlanders might turn the flank of Sir John Cope’s position, without being exposed to the enemy’s fire.  Having mentioned his opinion to Mr. Hepburn of Keith, who instantly saw its importance, he was encouraged by that gentleman to awake Lord George Murray, and communicate the idea to him.  Lord George received the information with grateful thanks, and instantly awakened Prince Charles, who was sleeping in the field with a bunch of peas under his head.  The Adventurer received with alacrity the news that there was a possibility of bringing an excellently provided army to a decisive battle with his own irregular forces.  His joy on the occasion was not very consistent with the charge of cowardice brought against him by Chevalier Johnstone, a discontented follower, whose Memoirs possess at least as much of a romantic as a historical character.  Even by the account of the Chevalier himself, the Prince was at the head of the second line of the Highland army during the battle, of which he says, ’It was gained with such rapidity, that in the second line, where I was still by the side of the Prince, we saw no other enemy than those who were lying on the ground killed and wounded, though we were not more than fifty paces behind our first line, running always as fast as we could to overtake them.’

This passage in the Chevalier’s Memoirs places the Prince within fifty paces of the best of the battle, a position which would never have been the choice of one unwilling to take a share of its dangers.  Indeed, unless the chiefs had complied with the young Adventurer’s proposal to lead the van in person, it does not appear that he could have been deeper in the action.